Hissy Fit (The Southern Gentleman #1)(32)

“Because a few of the kids thought it’d be hilarious to toilet paper my trees,” she muttered darkly.

The sweet little woman I’d left on her doorstep last night was gone. In her place was a raving woman who’d much rather geld me than kiss me.

What the hell?

I didn’t know what happened between last night and today, but something sure the fuck had.

She was staring at me like I’d run over her dog right in front of her, and I didn’t know what the fuck had happened.

I couldn’t even ask her what the fuck was wrong because the goddamn auditorium where we were all shoved was filled to the brim with people.

“I’d like to discuss first the morale in the school,” Mrs. Sherpa started with, as she fucking did every single time she started a stupid staff meeting.

We had a hundred thousand things to do today as we got ready for the standardized testing we were starting come Monday, and she wanted to bore us to death with student morale.

“Mrs. Sherpa,” one of our veteran teachers, Mrs. Golden, interrupted. “I’m going to be quite honest with you. Morale is absolute shit because we’re having to teach to this stupid freakin’ test and not to what they should be learning. They’re being told if they fail, they won’t graduate. They’re also scared shitless because they should be planning graduation and getting excited about prom, not whether or not they’re going to pass this asshole test.”

My lips twitched.

She was right.

I never worried about these tests when I was a kid, and I’d had to take them.

Now, students looked at me like they were on the verge of a panic attack on test days. When I took my test, there was no question on whether I would pass it. Nor was there an equation on whether my neighbor or the kid behind me would pass it.

“Ms. Crusie, do you have something to say?” Mrs. Sherpa asked. “I see you over here sinking in your seat.”

That was likely due to the fact that I hadn’t looked away from her since she arrived and refused to sit next to me.

She kept casting me nervous sideways glances and my dick was twitching each time she bit that goddamn lip.

“Ummm,” she hesitated.

“If you don’t feel like paying attention, then why are you even attending?” she snapped.

That’s when I lost my patience.

“She doesn’t want to tell you that morale is a goddamn crap shoot. That it makes you sound seriously out of the loop because you walk these halls just as well as we do. And honestly? With that threatening memo that went out last week about all of our jobs being in jeopardy if we don’t score well on the tests, nobody will say anything. Picking on Ms. Crusie because she’s too worried to say anything just makes you sound like a bad guy,” I interrupted.

Mrs. Sherpa’s eyes came to me.

She took a deep breath and straightened her spine. “I’m sorry, Ms. Crusie. I didn’t mean to take my bad mood out on you. Coach McDuff is correct.” She started to rub at her temples. “And I have noticed that student morale is down. I was hoping we could make a few concessions this week. Does anyone have any ideas on how we could do that?”

Raleigh hesitantly raised her hand.

“They just opened up the splash pad next door,” she said softly when the principal nodded at her. “This Friday is early release. We could spend that morning there, then eat pizza next door before returning to school. And since it’s still technically on school property, we wouldn’t have to obtain permission slips.”

The pizza place and the splash pad they’d just built in town was rented property that the school owned. But I could see one problem.

“As good of an idea as that is, we can’t do it because there are too many students,” I objected.

“We could take them in shifts,” Coach Casper interjected from my side. “Coach McDuff and I can…”

I missed whatever else that Coach Casper said.

My eyes were watching Raleigh, so I didn’t miss the narrowing of her eyes. Nor did I miss the death glare that she sent Coach Casper’s way.

I felt my lips twitch.

She may be mad, but she was not indifferent.

Good.

I leaned down farther into my seat and stared straight ahead as the principal discussed the legalities of the trip with the superintendent.

“All right,” Mrs. Sherpa replied. “I’ll figure out later if that’s acceptable. Who wants to give me a rundown on classes this month? Any trouble?”

I was busy watching Raleigh, so I noticed how she didn’t say a damn word about my class.

I raised my hand. “Now that baseball season is underway, I’m more than capable of taking my health class back over.”

Mrs. Sherpa’s eyebrows rose. “You were just saying how nice it was to have the free time to do the field maintenance.”

I shrugged. “They hired a new lawn guy that’s going to start soon. I no longer need that free period anymore.”

Not to mention I didn’t want Raleigh to feel uncomfortable.

But did the woman take the gift she was given?

Hell no.

The stubborn little shit.

“I’d like to keep the class if that’s all right,” Raleigh broke in. “We’re getting along great, and I would hate to have to disrupt their learning.”